A deep circular well or shaft anchors the left side of this plate, a wooden crane and hanging bucket rigged above it, while a crowded stairway climbs away to the right past figures who read, at this scale, as prisoners or laborers rather than free visitors. This is among the busiest compositions in Le Carceri d'Invenzione, layering catwalks, a barred grate, hanging chains, and a distant lit archway into a single frame with almost no resolved negative space — the viewer's eye finds no single clear path through the architecture, which is very much the intended effect. What to notice: Piranesi labeled this plate 'XIII' in the upper corner, a small numeral that is nearly the only legible, stable mark in an otherwise deliberately disorienting composition — a hand-drafted anchor point in a space built to have none.

Maker: Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Date: 1761
Medium of the original: Plate
Original held by: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00310

As chosen: 10 x 8 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	10 x 8 in
Outside size	11.6 x 9.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
10 x 8 in	194	Good	Trimmed 2.7%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
12 x 8 in	Wrong shape: a 14% crop
14 x 11 in	141 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
16 x 12 in	125 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
18 x 12 in	Wrong shape: a 14% crop
20 x 16 in	97 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 16 in	Wrong shape: a 14% crop
24 x 18 in	83 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
30 x 20 in	Wrong shape: a 14% crop
30 x 24 in	64 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
36 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 14% crop
40 x 30 in	50 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
48 x 36 in	41 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
60 x 40 in	Wrong shape: a 14% crop

Scanned

2026-10-07

Master file

2,000 x 1,556 px, srgb, Adobe RGB (1998)

Tone

Darks 49, lights 235 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark

Colour

0% vivid

Sharpness

83.29

Notes

Colour profile Adobe RGB (1998), converted to sRGB for the screen and the print
Neutrals lean warm (yellow): the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned

Shipping for this piece to a US address is $24.80, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.

Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.

A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.